This disclosure relates to manufactured wood products and methods for using wood material such as byproduct, scrap, processed, discarded wood pieces, and/or other wood material considered generally undesirable or unsuitable for construction and building use.
In recent years, widespread deforestation and unrestrained logging as well as increased demand for wood use has not only reduced the availability of natural wood but also adversely affected the environment. As the demands of construction, building, etc. grow, it is expected that the supply of natural wood will continue to decrease.
This scarcity of natural wood will be felt most keenly in those industries that produce wood products designed for outer surface use where the natural look and texture of a wood grain is the principal appeal of the wood product. For example, in the flooring industry specific species of hardwood are generally more popular and preferred over other species due to a particular wood's natural hardness, density, and, more importantly, distinctive attractive visual appeal. For flooring, preferred hardwoods include maple, red oak, and hickory. Unfortunately, the visual attractiveness of these species has the added effect of increasing demand and depleting the availability of natural raw timber sources sufficient to meet this growing demand.
In addition, a great deal of unused, undesirable, scrap, and/or waste wood material results from the processing of raw lumber into wood products. For example, in the flooring industry, a typical floor board preparation event involves harvesting a large block of raw lumber and slicing the block lengthwise to produce a few hundred pieces of veneer for processing into floor boards. As part of this preparation, it is not uncommon to generate significant amounts of byproduct wood pieces that are considered unusable as flooring material.
Common reasons for generating this byproduct wood material include removal of natural defects such as knots or piths from the lumber by cutting wood pieces from the lumber block; a need to create a smooth flat surface on the lumber block for cutting veneers; or removing a visually unappealing section on the lumber block. This material can be generated at multiple steps during the preparation process, for example, byproduct material is produced while sawmilling logs into rough sawn timbers and further cutting the rough sawn timbers into useable sizes for application. The end result of such wood preparation processes is the production of byproduct wood pieces from highly desirable wood species that are generally never used for any other wood product. Rather, this type of wood material is often discarded and/or burned because any further processing is expensive and economically infeasible. Accordingly, there is a need for a cost effective and efficient method of using natural byproduct wood material, scrap, and/or waste wood pieces to produce a high quality manufactured wood product that provides the visually appealing appearance of natural wood grain as well as natural wood properties.
In the past, the industry has attempted to address this problem by using byproduct wood material such as waste wood or scrap wood to form particle or pressed boards. Particle boards are made by pressing and extruding a mixture of wood chips, wood shavings, or saw dust and an adhesive resin or binder. Because this manufacturing process does not result in a product that looks like real wood, particle boards are typically covered with a wood veneer or painted to have the appearance of natural wood grain. Many methods have been explored, such as the one disclosed in United States Patent Application No. 2002/0179182, to artificially create the look of real wood grain. However, painting and applying an artificial wood grain veneer can become expensive and adds a disincentive for utilizing byproduct wood material in the wood processing industry where it is already too common to burn rather than recycle scrap or waste wood. Accordingly, there is a great need in the wood processing industry for a method of using byproduct wood material to manufacture a wood product that has the appearance of natural wood grain and further provides structural properties similar to that of natural wood.
In addition to using natural byproduct wood material, there is also a need for a method for producing a manufactured wood product using less desirable wood species. Due to the diminishing supplies of popular wood species, focus has now turned to fast regenerating and renewable species that have not been used for construction or building in the past. Such species include the Australian Eucalyptus blue gum, which can be harvested as early as every 10 years. However, blue gum tends to be difficult to work with due to the twisted orientation of its wood grain. Blue gum's wood grain makes it expensive to use the wood for any purpose other than as pulp wood, wood chips, or burning wood. Currently, almost all blue gum is used as pulpwood. In contrast, popular wood species such as the American Chestnut lends itself more easily to multipurpose use for poles, furniture, interior woodwork, and veneer panels. Thus, there is a need for a method for producing manufactured wood product from less desirable wood species where the manufactured wood product has a natural wood grain look and natural wood properties.
In addition to using natural raw wood material, there is also a need for a method for producing a manufactured wood product by using recycled wood material. As the natural supply of raw timber decreases, it will become necessary to recycle and reuse wood pieces that may have had one or more former lives serving as, for example, a board, beam, panel, floor board, etc. in a building. Recycled wood material can come from the demolition of a structure where the wood pieces were once used in the structure but are now left as rubble. In addition to the benefits of wood reuse and recycling, recycled wood pieces also provide a good resource for generating new wood products because this material generally has a longer length than wood material resulting from current wood preparation processes. This is in large part because the forests of previous decades and generations provided taller and wider trees and, therefore, longer raw lumber blocks than the trees available in forests today. Therefore, advantageously, recycled wood pieces may provide a greater starting length for use in producing a manufactured wood product. A greater starting length is particularly important for manufacturing panels where the current industry norm requires a minimum length of about 900 mm (3 feet) to about 1830 mm (6 feet). Recycled wood pieces generally will have this minimum desired length.
In addition, preference for longer boards also comes from an “aesthetic” view. For example, in the wood flooring industry, longer starting wood material results in longer floor boards where the longer boards create less joins in the floor. Fewer joins, in turn, minimize the interruptions in the flooring pattern and provides the aesthetically desirable appearance of a smoothly connected floor.
Furthermore, using starting material with a longer length also allows for quicker installation of wood board products. Generally, the longer the wood board product then the fewer wood board products needed for a target cover area. This, in turn, reduces the installation time and labor costs because there are fewer boards to install.
Furthermore, there is also a need for a method of producing a manufactured wood product from an assortment or mixture of wood species. For example, because lumber processing locations do not generally segregate byproduct wood materials by species, it is often the case that available supplies of wood materials are mixtures of two or more types of wood. As the natural characteristics of wood can vary greatly from species to species, there can be marked differences between each species' strength, hardness, density, moisture absorptiveness, elasticity, etc. Therefore, there is also a need for a method for producing a visually appealing manufactured wood product that can incorporate a mixture of wood species, while still providing a wood product that exhibits natural wood properties.
Another subject of this disclosure is to provide a manufactured wood product that is manufactured according to the methods described.